Pages could be built in scalable modules for different advertising configurations at USAT's main offices in McLean, Va., according to a tipster who says they saw prototype pages "several weeks ago." Those pages apparently were shown to readers in some sort of focus group; the tipster says: "From what I hear, they liked it.''Advertising sales and placement would be tricky, my source says, telling me in an e-mail: "They're looking at very (unusual) ad strategies, too."
The plan is part of Gannett's wider bid to cut costs and boost earnings by imposing more uniformity in content and technology on GCI's disparate portfolio of print and digital products. That effort has focused on areas including advertising design, printing and finance. Now, Corporate is extending the strategy to newsrooms, in a move with implications for the recent emphasis on "local-local" coverage.
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.
[Today's front page, Newseum]
Honestly, who didn't see that coming?
ReplyDeleteUhh-huh. Hooookay....
ReplyDeleteSo what happen when, say, a paper decides to localize a national or international story?
Say they want to talk with local residents about what they think about the bailout and use some background from a wire story.
Or talk to the local Pakistani community about the latest developments overseas.
Or even pair the reminisces of a local resident formerly from Fargo about the area now flooded with the wire story and photos on the floods.
Well, sorry, Mr. Editor, you can't, because those stories are all on the USA Today/ContentOne inserted pages, and we can't duplicate stories.
Say goodbye to local control. Tara Connell is In Charge.
One nation; one newspaper content.
ReplyDeleteOne corporation spoon feeding the non-reading public.
Once again the MBAs controlling the news, not journalist with their ear listening to their unique community's need for a custom tailored product.
When all Gannet newspapers are the same, then the public has the same reason not to read them.
Really folks, one size does fit all.
Another way to get rid of AP content?
ReplyDeleteWell, we've been using a nation,world page for a couple years now.
ReplyDeleteWhat's so new about that?
Interesting proposition for USAT. This is a paper with fewer design resources than just a year or two ago. Not sure what extra work would be involved, but the flagship does not have an abundance of page designers with loads of free time. As it is, folks are often scrambling to get pages laid out. Some sections are more depleted than others as staffers are having to pick up the duties of those who have left or were driven out. Design-wise, the paper (and I emphasize "paper") is not in the best of shape. So it is intriguing if USAT now has to pick up additional duties for the other Gannett papers while at the same time shifting resources to the web site, and worse, getting rid of staffers or furloughing existing one. Sounds to me like USAT may need to hire some peeps in order to make this work.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I know. It doesn't work. Different sizes do not work and depending on the ads, which drop out all the time unless they put in national, make it a complete nightmare. They keep cutting. They keep scaling back. But they never go to the people on the floor to see if their bright ideas crippling the company actually work.
ReplyDeleteThus does the self-fulfilling prophecy of newspaper collapse continue.
ReplyDeleteDon't these pages from USAT already exist? Thought this began a year ago.
ReplyDeleteGNS has been producing a Nation/World page seven days a week for several years, using stories from USA TODAY and other Gannett newspapers and The AP, and it is widely used in the company. It continues to be produced today.
ReplyDeleteBack in the early days (circa 1983) USAT experimented with local weekly newspapers that would be distributed with USAT. Called Rancho TODAY and Upland TODAY, they were in two growing S Calif cities. Weeklies were four sections: Local, sports, features and biz. The powers that be didn't get them enough time and Gannett execs killed them after a year. They were well received by communities but was hard to attract enough ad revenue. But basically people would get USAT for national, world news and weeklies for local.
ReplyDeleteBesides the need sometimes to localize wire stories, we choose some stories from the AP or our other services because we know they might be of particular interest to our readers. We would lose the ability to choose such stories.
ReplyDeleteThis really is just a way to foolishly save money by turning newspapers into more homogenized products. It will accelerate the flight of longtime subscribers, and will help destroy the value of the individual properties.
This is excellent news everyone. We tried this at my New Jersey (HNT, whoop!, whoop!) Info Center three years ago. Here's exactly how efficient it wasn't:
ReplyDelete1. Get up from your pc to download the Quark page from GNS on one of the Macs.
1a. Oops. Did you forget to first write down the ad stack specs on a Post-It note? Go back to step 1.
2. Rebuild the page in Quark with ad stack specs from Post-It note.
3. Rewrite heads to fit, cut stories, link art.
4. Oh snap, forgot to have IT set up Quark's style sheets to match paper's typography.
5. Call IT. Be told you need to put in a help desk ticket.
6. Get up from Mac, walk back to PC, use personal e-mail because Outlook isn't working, and enter a work ticket to have style sheets set up on the Mac.
7. Wait three weeks.
8. Go back to Mac and save page as an eps and save to server.
9. Go back to PC.
10. Import eps page on to the working page. Cross fingers that ad stacks match.
11. Ad stacks don't match.
12. Go back to step 2.
13. When copy desk finally gets the proof and finds numerous errors, go back to step 8 make corrections, move to step 9.
Good freakin' luck.
This is a struggling Gannett. All the old rules are out the door. Consider this:
ReplyDeleteWhat if Content One takes over selling ads for the World/Nation pages? They could have a couple page configs and make everyone conform to that. That way Content One would have more of a revenue stream.
It sounds to be like the design might be a job for some designer in India. They just need to give them templates to use.
As far as copy editing. Local folks probably won't be permitted and have the time to even look at the Nation/World pages. Can you say uneditable PDF? That's what I would do to keep those pesky local copy editors from "nitpicking" and "screwing" with it.
This is how management thinks.
This news makes me sad. Readers of Gannett's papers should be exposed to a broader--and richer--range of stories than those offered by USA Today. That paper does some things, like covering sports and trends, well. But it's not anywhere in the same league as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune in covering national and international stories. USAT has NEVER won a Pulitzer. The one time it came close to doing so was when Jack Kelly was named a finalist for what turned out to be fraudulent work.
ReplyDeleteI've asked this many time before but again, what would USAT's circulation be without it's Hotel numbers. I have a feeling that they are a significant part of their circulation numbers. Frankly, when I stay at a hotel I have seen stacks of them - outdated at that.
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ReplyDeleteYes, USAT does some things well. But even those things are not done as well as they once were. For instance, USAT has slipped considerably in the last few years in visual journalism. The design has become more sedate. And the depth of journalism seems to have slipped again. It was never going to compete with the Times or Post in terms of substance and credibility, but now it's not even that interesting to look at. It appears to me to just be going through the motions instead of really innovating. Not sure if community dailies will be any better off with USAT's assistance. Might be better off without it, frankly.
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ReplyDelete10:21,
ReplyDeleteWhat sites do you know of that use that page? I really doubt it's that many.
I'll start the list. Neither Wilmington nor Salisbury uses it.
Oh, like any local paper does their own national coverage! What's the difference in an AP story or a story from USA TODAY? I'll tell you the difference: the revenue goes to USA TODAY and then Gannett, not the AP. I don't see the big deal here. It just seems smart and I wonder why we've been paying the AP all these years when everyone was bitching about USA TODAY. Losers.
ReplyDeleteAt least 30 papers currently use the nation/world pages already produced by Gannett. More and more are relying on these products as staffs shrink and focus shifts to local coverage.
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ReplyDelete"The one time it came close to doing so was when Jack Kelly was named a finalist for what turned out to be fraudulent work."
ReplyDeleteYet you don't know how to spell his name. You are the true fraud.